and i thought it only a dream

seeing

Derek only started getting the dreams a few years ago, and he knows what it means, his soulmate is younger than him. Laura teases him incessantly about it, but Derek doesn't pay her any mind. The dreams are fuzzy at best, he only has a fleeting glimpse of plaid shirts and laughter and a pink mouth.

As Laura and he start on their roadtrip back to California from New York, the dreams start to get clearer. Every state they cross, Derek can see the outline of his soulmate get more defined, knows that he has brown eyes, a gorgeous smile and fluffy hair that looks soft to touch.

"He must live on the West Coast," Laura muses when Derek tells her about it over a hasty lunch when they stop for gas in Texas.

They're in Arizona crashing in a motel on the last leg of their journey when Derek hears his soulmate's voice for the first time. It's a clear timbre, ringing like a bright bell in Derek's mind, and it fills Derek with ache and longing. He wonders if his soulmate dreams of him too, can feel him getting closer and closer to wherever he is.

The move back to Beacon Hills feels right; Talia welcomes her children home with open arms, doesn't ask Laura too many questions about the man she thought was her soulmate and followed all the way to New York, or the years they spent in and out of each other's pockets, trying to find their own way.

It was an interesting experience, but it wasn't home.

Derek is home now, and he dreams every night. He knows what his soulmate looks like, sounds like, knows that he's close.

"Don't rush it, honey, when it happens it'll happen," Talia says, smoothing his hair.

"It's just so frustrating," Derek complains. "I don't know his name, I don't know how to find him, I just have this- this image of him," he says.

So it takes Derek completely by surprise when he's at the supermarket and he turns the corner and there in the ice cream section, is his soulmate.

He looks perfect, standing there, contemplating between rocky road and mint chip, chewing on his lip a little. He's dressed a lot nicer than Derek's ever seen him, in slim black jeans, a polo shirt, gelled-down hair and fashionable glasses perched on his nose, but he's still looks amazing. His face is the same, big expressive eyes currently attempting to make an ice cream decision.

Derek approaches him cautiously, heart pounding nervously- this is it- this is when he'll introduce himself and his soulmate will recognize him in return and they'll live happily ever after and one day tell their children about meeting in the ice cream section of the grocery store.

Derek is still trying to figure out what to say when his soulmate talks to him first.

"These two for one deals always get you," he says.

The moment feels strangely flat for what should be a monumental occasion, and Derek barely manages to say, "Yeah, I know what you mean." He looks into the frosted glass of the display case.

"Mint chip, though," he says. It's his favorite flavor, and the fact that there seems to be a sale on the flavor might mean something. Maybe.

Derek's soulmate laughs. "It's my brother's favorite, but this isn't for him." He opens the freezer door and grabs the rocky road carton. "See you around, stranger!" he says, giving Derek a friendly smile and then walks down the aisle.

That's it. There's no amazed sense of recognition, no rush into each other's arms, no excited plans for the future, just Derek standing there shell-shocked in the ice cream aisle.

Derek's soulmate catches up to a blonde girl pushing a shopping cart with what looks like shared groceries and then is handing the rocky road to her, saying something that makes her giggle and laugh, and they kiss, folding into one another, looking like the picture-perfect image of happiness.